When 71-year-old Sara Dawson told her children she was going to the Occupy Columbus rally yesterday, they asked if they should have bail money ready.

"I've been waiting 25 years for the U.S. to wake up, " the Columbus native said. "We've been buying our elected officials, not electing them."

The rally was an offshoot of the national Occupy Wall Street movement. Dawson said the movement's power is its nonviolence. Indeed, sign-bearing demonstrators were peaceful as they came and went from the crowd in front of the Statehouse throughout the morning. The group numbered about 50 to 90 throughout the day, peaking at more than 100 around noon.

Protesters had a variety of demands and grievances, disparaging such things as corporate irresponsibility, outsourcing, student-loan debt and the media. The group sought to show solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City, according to its website.

"I want to see a job for everyone that wants one, " shouted Kevin Keef, 53, of the Chicago suburb of Palatine, Ill. "(Wall Street) got their bailout; where is our bailout?"

The protest on Wall Street has entered its fourth week, and protesters there don't plan on leaving anytime soon.

Those protesters say they're fighting for the "99 percent, " or the vast majority of Americans who do not fall into the wealthiest 1 percent of the population; their causes range from bringing down Wall Street to fighting global warming. The movement gained traction through social media, and protests have taken place in several other major cities.

In Columbus yesterday, many passers-by honked in agreement while a few shouted derisively, but Columbus police and State Highway Patrol troopers, who maintained a visible presence, reported no incidents.

"I think the success of the country depends on the success of this movement, " said Bob Letcher, 62, of Westerville. He held a sign -- "Cornell PhD will teach/tutor for food" -- which he said represents the need for education in the country.

The attention of the movement was briefly diverted as Richard Shaffer, a street minister from Minnesota, began shouting at and preaching to the crowd. He said he was on his way to the Ohio State University campus when he happened upon the rally.

"The word is not wasted. It is never wasted. If it were a group of baseball players, I'd preach to them, too."

Trevor Anderson, 21, of Columbus, said income inequality and corporate influence on government brought him to the rally.

"The progress we're making is slow, " he said. "If movements escalate too quickly, they can become violent."

Bethany Powell, 24, of Youngstown, held a sign that read "Mean Corporations Suck." Powell, an employee of JP Morgan Chase & Co., said she thinks involvement in the movement is the best way to make a difference.

"It would be a bad idea for people who oppose the corporate model not to get involved in one, " she said. "You need to have people in the corporation who believe they should be responsible. My ideas will be the ones they keep as I move up."

The group plans to hold a "general assembly" Downtown at 6:30 p.m. today at the amphitheater in Bicentennial Park to organize events.

A similar protest popped up in Toledo yesterday as more than 100 people under the banner of Occupy Toledo gathered at Levis Square downtown. Many hoisted signs expressing outrage about banks and corporations being bailed out by the government.

Tristan Navera is a fellow in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism Statehouse News Bureau.

Information from the Associated Press was included in this story.

tnavera@dispatch.com

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